RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Taxes

“It will be important for conservatives to draw clear lines in the sand their leadership dare not cross before the debt ceiling fight.”

As was buzzing around twitter last night, if you’d said a year ago that in 2010 a Democratic House of Representatives would have voted for the Bush Tax Cuts with a greater margin than the Republicans, the rest of us would have thought you were crazy.It is, however, fitting that Nancy Pelosi’s last major act as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives was was preside over re-passage of George Bush’s “failed” tax policy. The irony is rich and ripe.Many of us, myself included, believed we could get a much better deal that we got. Nonetheless, we will now see the income tax rates stay the same and receive a payroll tax holiday — an idea first floated on the right — along with some solid business breaks the right has also championed.We may have gotten a better deal, but this is the deal we wound up with. Seeing so many Democrats vote to extend tax cuts they said were failures was icing on the cake.Many tea party activists will want to go after Republicans who voted for the tax compromise. I am not one of them. While I strongly disagreed and thought we could get a better deal, this is not a hill to die on. We were able to keep income tax rates down.As James Carville said on CNN last night, this is foreplay for the GOP. The real fight comes on raising the debt ceiling. On that one we must fight hard to, at a minimum, bring some significant and wholesale reforms to key areas and work to defund Obamacare. Otherwise, we must not raise the debt ceiling.It will be important for conservatives to draw clear lines in the sand their leadership dare not cross before the debt ceiling fight. Otherwise, the GOP, as is its tendency, will out negotiate itself.